Wearables can increase PAP use, pilot trial finds
By HME News Staff
Updated 9:48 AM CST, Mon November 24, 2025
YARMOUTH, Maine – Augmenting the management of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with consumer wearable devices increases the use of positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy, according to the results of a pilot randomized trail published in Sleep. The pilot randomized trial measured the effects of a consumer grade wearable-augmented program that provides nightly pulse oximetry data to patients in a weekly report on PAP use in adults with OSA recruited from an outpatient sleep center. The trial demonstrated that the consumer grade wearable-augmented program is a promising intervention for increasing PAP use. The change in PAP use was +1.33 hours (+79.8 minutes) for the immediate group and -0.17 hours (-10.2 minutes) for the waitlist control group, with a between-group difference of 1.50 hours (90 minutes) (p=.0097). The change in number of days PAP was used for more than four hours over a 7-day period was +1.32 days for the immediate and 0.12 days for the waitlist control group, with a between-group difference of 1.20 (p=.0401). Researchers say a future full-scale trial that follows participants for a longer period is needed.
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